1/31/2018 - Kiko was out in the forest with the elephants today, but not for long thanks to a big male baboon who was watching over his family. He was sitting in a tree and started alarming and gathering his family together. Mbegu read the situation and did the same for her elephant herd. She made sure all the little ones were safe whilst Godoma, Sana Sana, Malkia and Ndotto assisted her. They raised their ears high and stood on guard, turning in circles to look for danger. The keepers were alert as well as with such an alarm call from the baboons they thought they must have seen something like a lion in the area. Kiko was prepared and stood next to the keepers, and sure enough a few minutes later we spotted a lioness in the thicket watching some warthogs. The warthogs were lucky as they were also warned by the baboons and they swiftly ran off in the opposite direction. Kiko was immediately taken back to the stockade compound for his safety.

Maxwell must have felt the heat of the day today. Normally he naps in his bedroom when he feels hot but today he opted for a lengthy mud bath. After his mud bath he fell asleep right there is his mud pool up until sun set, which is when he woke up. Musiara seems to love sharing his green branches in the afternoon with his neigbours Luggard and Maisha. Even if the branches are placed in the middle of his stockade, he will always pull them over to the wall he shares with one of these two. Unfortunately his neighbours will always pull a substantial amount through the gaps in the partition, leaving him with hardly any. This evening Maisha took most of his browse, leaving him with just a few small branches.

On the 19th of September KWS Officer Bernard Rono, who heads the DSWT funded Meru mobile Veterinary Unit, reported having received a baby male reticulated giraffe estimated to be just one week old, which had been rescued by KWS rangers on the Meru National Park boundary. The fate of his mother remains a mystery, but the location where he was found happens to be an area bedevilled by human wildlife conflict.

He was flown to the Nairobi Nursery by Sky Vet, sparing him what would have been a gruelling and very hot seven to eight hour journey by road and being the first time our Keepers had been involved in the rescue of an orphaned giraffe, they were fully briefed about the necessity to ensure the giraffe’s head remained upright at all times throughout the flight. On this occasion the usual elephant-rescue tarpaulin had to be modified into a make-shift cradle and throughout the entire procedure the little giraffe was seemingly totally resigned to whatever lay in store for him.

Sitting quietly with his neck sticking out, he calmly surveyed the scene, making no attempt whatsoever to break free as he was carried and loaded onto the plane. Airlifting him to Nairobi involved a one hour flight, thus sparing him the gruelling journey. Upon arrival at the Nairobi Nursery, he was still amazingly trusting and even affectionate, happy to fraternize with the men who had rescued him - the veterinary team, the pilot, the Keepers, or whoever else happened to be passing by.

He has been named Kiko a name from Meru National Park, and he is now very much in the Nursery fold, not only with the company of his Keepers whom he loves but also some feathered friends in the form of Pea and Pod and our two latest little elephant arrivals. Both Weiwei and Loboito love to spend time under his belly resting their trunks on his side and neck, which he happily tolerates. Kiko is extremely playful these days with limbs splaying in all directions he hurtles around the car park and in the open forested glades letting off steam.